There was a constant bustle in the hotel lobby at Emperor’s Palace in South Africa. Tourists and high rollers milled about and occasionally some of the fighters on the upcoming card would stop for a chat. I was skimming over the bystanders, waiting for the former three-time heavyweight champion of the world, Lennox Lewis. Big guys are usually easily spotted but not Lewis. Suddenly there was a familiar voice behind me. I turned around and there he was. Lennox Lewis moves quietly, like a cat. “My wife always says that,” he laughs.

These days the retired icon makes his home in Toronto, Canada with his wife and four kids. He has three girls and one boy. His son developed a solid knowledge of the sport. However, he is not interested in getting involved in boxing, choosing instead to concentrate on filmmaking. “He is into that Japanese style, he does Anime. He knows the sport well enough to maybe be a good trainer but decided that’s not for him.”

These days, besides being a dignified elder statesman of pugilism, he keeps himself busy with managing and training up-and-comers. “I just pick youngsters here and there that can use a little of my help. I don’t want to be in the corner, kind of defeats the purpose. I like hollering between rounds. The referee can’t tell a fan to shut up,” he smiles.

One of them is junior middleweight, Kestna Davis, who scored a fourth-round knockout over Pieter de Klerk on the South African card.

Lewis represented Canada in the 1988 Seoul Olympics, taking gold with a second-round stoppage of Riddick Bowe. He returned to his country of birth, launching his pro career in the UK.

Already the European champion, his first major test came in his 15th bout when he took on the 35-0 British champion, Gary Mason in 1991. Mason had amassed 32 knockouts on his ledger and was considered too much too soon by some. “I knew Gary Mason back then, we were friends. He was driving a bus at the time and was always complaining about Frank Bruno not wanting to fight him. I wasn’t worried. I knew I was too fast for him.”

A sixth-round knockout of former WBA titleholder, Mike Weaver followed, this time in Las Vegas. ‘I learned something from that fight. Weaver had a great jab. He would turn it over right at the end, giving it extra pop. I copied that.”

There was also a third-round stoppage of fellow Olympic super heavyweight gold medalist Tyrell Biggs. What makes some great amateurs go on to have successful pro careers while others just can’t get over the finishing line? “With Biggs it was drugs that ruined him. It was a problem with the whole Olympic squad he was a part of. There were always drugs around them. Talent wasn’t the issue. He was a good fighter.”

His big chance came in 1992 when he took on Donovan “Razor” Ruddock at Earls Court in London in a final WBC eliminator. With his patented hybrid left hook-uppercut nicknamed “The Smash,” the Canadian contender was considered a serious threat. He took Mike Tyson to hell and back in two losing efforts and racked up stoppages over Greg Page and Phil Jackson going into the Lewis fight. There were those who thought that his power would be too much. It never became a factor, Lewis destroying him inside two rounds. “It was quick, but everybody went home happy,” Lewis remembers.

When Riddick Bowe famously dumped the WBC belt in the trash rather than defend his newly won undisputed title against his mandatory contender, the sanctioning body declared Lewis their champion, kickstarting his first title reign.

We briefly touch on the super fight that never was. How would he have approached a fight with Riddick Bowe? “Watch my amateur fight with Tyrell Biggs (Lewis lost to Biggs in the quarter-final of the ’84 Olympics), then watch my pro fight with him. That would have been the difference. I would have gone straight after Bowe, just like I did against Biggs the second time.”

He made three successful title defenses in his first go around and we paused at the Frank Bruno fight. The fight marked a time in 1993 in the UK when the interest in the sport reached a fever pitch. The Chris Eubank-Nigel Benn rematch also took place within days of Lewis-Bruno. A documentary series, entitled “Four Kings” has since been released on Amazon Prime about that heady period in British boxing.

“I got under Frank’s skin a little bit, calling him names. I wanted him to come at me.” Bruno did just that and was doing well until Lewis ended matters in the seventh. “He made a mistake of using these short, upward punches against me. I lay low and watched for the opening and when I got the chance, I nailed him with the left hook.” That punch set up the finishing combination that had the British icon helpless on the ropes.

Things went wrong the next year when he was knocked down by a right from Oliver McCall in the second round. He made it to his feet, but the fight was waved over. Was it stopped too soon? Lewis feels strongly about this. “Definitely, it was stopped too soon. I beat the count. I was the champion. They wouldn’t even give me a chance to fight back.”

A switch in trainers to Emanuel Steward followed. Despite winning a WBC eliminator against Lionel Butler in his next fight, Lewis would find himself frozen out of the title picture for over two years. He kept winning, the most notable victories coming over Tommy Morrison and another fellow Olympic gold medalist, Ray Mercer. The Mercer fight at Madison Square Garden was a memorable war, Lewis prevailing by majority decision. “I enjoyed that fight because the crowd loved it. Manny shouted at me to box, not to exchange with him, but I enjoyed those exchanges. I wanted to show that I could take his right hand and give it back to him.”

Lewis’ camp tried their best to enforce his mandatory challenge of Mike Tyson, who was now the WBC belt holder. Tyson elected to vacate the belt, fighting Bruce Seldon for the WBA title instead. Once again, Lewis had to make do, facing old foe Oliver McCall for the vacant WBC title. He stopped McCall in the fifth of a bizarre fight where his opponent appeared to have a mental meltdown, refusing to fight. What is his take? “Drugs,” he states matter-of-factly. “Oliver McCall always had a drug problem, his whole career. That’s why Manny couldn’t work with him and left (Steward trained McCall for the first Lewis fight).”

Lewis made nine successful title defenses in his second reign. During that run he faced some heavy hitters. Some, like David Tua, were simply outboxed in cruise control. Others, like Andrew Golota and Michael Grant, were taken out in quick fashion. How did he decide which tactics to adopt?

It appears it wasn’t that complicated as he relates an amusing tale.

“My mom always makes my fight dinners for me and this time she made it with different spices in it. I like Scotch bonnet peppers. We were in Nevada and when she couldn’t find it, she used different ones. Anyway, when I finally came to the fight, I felt funny, like my stomach was moving funny. So, I said, ‘Mom, what peppers did you use?’ She said, ‘Oh I couldn’t find the Scotch bonnet peppers, so I used some different ones, Habanero poppers.’ I’m like ok, I’m feeling the Habanero peppers, Anyway, I didn’t know if I should go to the bathroom or go to the fight. But I went to the fight. So, I said, ‘I better get rid of him quickly so I can go to the bathroom. I went out there. He kind of looked at me funny. So I am like, ‘Who you’re looking at like that?’ So that got me upset, along with the peppers. I went after him and gave him some combinations and he didn’t last.”

“So, it was all about cuisine and not about avoiding those low blows?” I pressed him.

“That was one of the things. Every time I told people I’m going to fight Golota, they went ‘Ooh’ (wincing and gesturing below the belt line). He better not hit me below the belt because I haven’t had any kids yet. So that upset me. So there was a big kind of focus on this guy. The peppers, he looked at me funny and I was upset that people always went ‘Ooh, he was going to hit me low. I didn’t want that, so I got rid of him quickly.”

He also stopped Shannon Briggs in five rounds in an entertaining slugfest in 1998. That fight got him recognition as the lineal champion on account of Briggs’ victory over George Foreman preceding the Lewis fight. He seems unaware of that detail. “Oh, is that where the lineal thing came from?”

Would he have fought Foreman, had George gotten the decision over Briggs? He shakes his head. “No. I never wanted to fight George. It is a lose-lose situation. If you beat him, like I would have, then you beat an old guy and everyone hates you, because they loved George. And if he beats you, you got beaten by an old guy and you are rubbish.”

He finally got the chance to be undisputed champion in 1999 when he met the WBA and IBF titleholder, Evander Holyfield in Madison Square Garden. “I was looking forward to boxing Evander Holyfield because of the fact that he was a good boxer, and he was coming up from a cruiserweight position where not too many do that.” Lewis appeared to outbox Holyfield almost every round but at the end of the fight, instead of being announced the winner, it was declared a split draw. “It was a terrible feeling. It was one of those things I think a lot of boxers go through and you must go through at least one of these types of fights in your career. Unfortunately, I’ve been through two of them.”

The public outcry was such that a rematch followed later that year in Las Vegas. Ironically, their second encounter was a more competitive fight. Still, Lewis managed to win a unanimous decision and was finally undisputed champion “The second fight, when he came out, he wasn’t singing, because the first fight he was singing and I’m like, ‘this guy is singing coming to the ring with me, he is not taking me that serious. That upset me again. I went out there to outbox him. The first fight, I was just boxing, boxing. Even after the fight, he was beat up. He couldn’t even make it to the press conference. But in the second fight, he prepared for me a lot better. So, I said to myself, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ I just went out there and did the same thing.”

Lewis has a healthy respect for his rival and still rates Evander Holyfield as the best he has fought. “He had everything. He had the defense; he had the offense.”

Disaster struck in 2001. Fighting in South Africa, he got knocked out by Hasim Rahman in the fifth round. What went wrong? He sighs. “Honestly, I did not prepare for him properly. You just don’t prepare for Hasim Rahman like you prepare for Mike Tyson because to me, Rahman was just another fight, nothing more. I was boxing fine but then he got me with a shot around the gloves and that was that.”

He went to visit then South African president, Nelson Mandela after the fight, unfortunately now as an ex-champ. Mandela, a huge boxing fan, encouraged him, telling Lewis, “Don’t worry. You will get him next time.”

Those words turned out to be prophetic. A rematch followed later that year, and it turned into what Lewis rates as the favorite fight of his career. A one-two in the fourth sent Rahman out flat on his back and Lewis was a three-time heavyweight champion. “You could see it on the TV. I knocked him right onto the Don King logo on the canvas. That felt good!”

Finally, the Mike Tyson fight happened in 2002. Lewis gave Tyson a sustained beating, knocking him out in the eighth round. Was he surprised by how easy he made it look? “No,” he says emphatically. Emanuel Steward told me it would be my easiest fight. And I went like ‘My easiest fight?’ and he said, ‘Yes that’s gonna be your easiest fight.’ And then I realized why he said that. All my fights leading up to that was preparation for Tyson anyway.”

His last fight in June of 2003 was a bloody sixth round stoppage of future dominant heavyweight champion, Vitali Klitschko. The pair traded some big shots in a crowd-pleasing war at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. It was Lewis’ punches, however, that opened a deep gash above Klitschko’s eye, forcing the stoppage.

In a rare case of the replacement being better than the original opponent, Klitschko stepped in for an injured Kirk Johnson. Did the change in opponent affect Lewis on the night? “That affected me not in a good way, but at my worst I still beat him at his best.”

Lewis decided to walk away with a record of 41-2-1 with 32 knockouts, having beaten every man he has ever faced.

It was clearly the right decision. He looks and sounds good. If you are not a boxing fan it would be easy to mistake him for a basketball player or any other professional.

What is the secret to retiring healthy and wealthy from the most brutal of sports?

“If you are gonna be a good boxer and you want to be a great boxer, you have to listen to what Muhammad Ali said. Because I listened to Ali and he said, ‘Hit and don’t get hit.’ If you don’t get hit, you’ll have a longer life and longevity in boxing. How do you keep your money? You got to put it away. Do what my mom says. My mom said, ‘You can only drive one car at a time.’ So, I only bought one car. I see other people buying two, three, four cars. Why? You don’t need to.”

Wise words from a modern heavyweight great.